


Lost

by Kumikoko



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Memory Loss, Post Chapter 105, Short Chapters, Slow To Update, Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-07
Updated: 2018-06-03
Packaged: 2019-05-03 16:24:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, Underage
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,792
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14572917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kumikoko/pseuds/Kumikoko
Summary: When the airship is downed, Armin finds himself lacking important memories, and is trapped on a foreign land.





	1. The Fall

**Author's Note:**

> I don't know how this story formed in my head, since I don't even like Gabi, nor do I like any of the Marleyans except Falco. Falco is a good man. 
> 
> There are many ideas I have for this fanfic. However, I may be slow to update. 
> 
> This fanfic gravitates away from the manga. I am doing my own thing with this fic. So please bare with me. 
> 
> If anyone is interested in where the fic might go, feel free to leave a comment. 
> 
> And please understand that this is a fanfiction. I do not own the characters. I do not own Attack on Titan. I am not profiting off of this. It is just wrote for fun.

Lost

Chapter 1: The Fall

An explosion filled the night sky.

The airship had been hit.

Orange and red flames rained down on to the city alongside debris.

No one really knew what happened.

All Armin knew was that the air ship was knocked off balance, which thrust everyone on board to smack against the wall. They all smacked together, and then the air ship was hit again, and the blimp’s dangerous descent hastened. The world spun. Armin felt air rush past him.

On instinct his hands were snapping into action, guided by muscle memory to use the 3DM gear to catch himself on to a building. The hook did pierce through a wall. Something went wrong. Did the line snap? Everything was happening too fast for Armin to think. He could only react. The 3DM gear worked miraculously once more, just enough to break Armin’s plummet to the ground from being fatal.

_Smack_!

The world went dark.

. . .

_Everything hurts_. That was the first conscious thought Armin had, as he began to wake. There was a severe, repetitive pounding in Armin’s head and a familiar burning sensation located on the right side of his body. _Did I get burnt_?  That heart-pounding question made Armin snap his blue eyes open with alarm. His eyesight was impaired.

“He’s waking!” A unfamiliar feminine voice exclaimed excitedly, sounding too close for comfort. Armin blinked rapidly, and then hissed as something wet, and cool was pressed against his stomach.

When he opened his eyes again, he could see a petite girl with coal-black hair, and determined eyes, hovering above him. He stared at her with curious confusion as he tried to comprehend who she was, why she was near him, and more importantly, why did he hurt so much?

“He looks confused, yet alarmed.” A decidedly male voice commented. Armin barely noticed a light-haired teenager sitting across from the girl.

_I’m surrounded_. Was all Armin could think through the agonizing throbbing in his head. He reacted on a primal instinct to escape, and elbowed the girl who he was sure was hurting him somehow, someway. His elbow connected with her arm. She gasped with pain and retracted her arms. The boy was shouting something, but all Armin could think about was escape. _I have to escape_. _I am not safe here_. Armin thought, as he propped himself up on to his elbows with the intent to launch himself to his feet like the sprightly, lithe teenager that he was.

Agony halted all movement. Armin fell back against the blanket, gasping, and wheezing as he writhed in pain. Forget his head. There was a awful, indescribable pain in his chest, and his arm that he hadn’t consciously realized was present until he used them.

“Hey! What kind of thank you is that to give to the girl who saved your life!?” She snapped, rubbing her sore arm as she tried to blink tears away. He had hit her arm right where she had landed on it, awhile ago.

“I think he’s just scared, Gabi. He doesn’t know who he can trust.” The male spoke up, appealing to her sense of logic. Gabi relaxed her shoulders a bit, and looked back down at Armin who was amongst many of the injured. He had probably been minding his own business when that airship was attacked. Debris must have hit him because the right half of his body had been seared by flames. That’s the conclusion Gabi had come to.

_I’d be scared too, I guess, if, debris fell on me_. Gabi decided, cooling her temper down considerably. _He’s lashing out because he’s hurt_. “Okay, let’s try this again. My name is Gabi. I saved your damn life, so you can worship me now like everyone else does.” Gabi said, introducing herself boastfully.  Armin blinked, and slowly began to look around the room. There were other injured people laying on blankets in a line. There were two people milling about, tending to patients who were in worse conditions then Armin.

“Where…where am I?” Armin asked, because he had no memory of this place, and having that question answered seemed more important than acknowledging the girl’s prideful boast. Gabi groaned and puffed her cheeks out.

“Did you not hear me? I said—” Gabi started to complain, but her friend rose a hand to stop her from having a petty, childish outburst.

“You’re in the hospital.” He said, then paused and looked around self-consciously at the lack of technology and beds that a proper hospital would have. “Well,” He muttered and looked back at Armin with shame colored cheeks. “This is the hospital that we go to…all of the important civilians are crowding the real hospitals…”

“Your wounds are bad. I’m willing to bet they’re just superficial, though. A burn here, a burn there…” Gabi acknowledged in a shocking carefree tone, as she waved her hands about for emphasis.

_Hospital. Wounds? Burns. No. No. I was supposed to—to—there was something I was supposed to do_ …! Armin panicked, realizing he couldn’t remember what he was supposed to be doing right now. He was needed somewhere. Someone was counting on him. Yet, his mind was blank. Armin then made the mistake of looking down at himself to assess the damage for himself.

There was heavy, dark bruising on his chest, which he noticed first. Then he saw on the right side of his body, what looked to be jagged, flickery flame scars on his body, that spread across his chest, stomach, and thigh from a horizontal way.

_Wait. My thigh_? A secondary blanket was just barely shielding cock from view, whilst the right thigh was definitely exposed. Armin felt an internal heat spread across his body. “Where are my clothes!?” Armin exclaimed, pulling the blanket over his body in a quick swoop.  Gabi blinked at Armin’s girlish reaction, and then began to laugh.

“Oh goodness! What are you, a woman!?” Gabi accused between fits of laughter. She had never seen a boy act so shy before. “Falco, he’s, he’s blushing! Look at him blush!”

“Ugh, Gabi!” The boy, Falco, scolded, as a sympathetic blush spread across his face. Gabi only continued to laugh. Falco rolled his eyes and refocused on Armin. “Gabi said your clothes were burned to tatters. There was barely anything left of them. She, uh, well, she hauled you in here rather, uh, exposed….” Falco informed the blushing blonde, who turned five shades darker at the new information. Armin was absolutely mortified.

“Aw, don’t blush so much. Your cock looked firm.” Gabi mentioned offhandedly, as she picked the damp dowel up and re-wet it in the bowl of cold water. Falco and Armin both gaped at her.

“Firm!?” Both boys blurted, shocked and red-faced.

“Well, not _firm_ firm. Just that—it doesn’t matter.” Gabi decided after a moment, and yanked the blanket away from Armin to press the cold towel to one of the burn wounds. Armin’s breath hitched with pain. “You’re going to have to get over your shyness. I’m not going to tolerate it if I’m the one treating you.” Gabi warned then, as overbearing as ever.

“And just like that I don’t want you to ever see my dick.” Falco said, becoming self-conscious about his body. What would Gabi say about his penis if she ever saw it? If the two were alone together, Falco might not mind her jabs and taunts, but she was talking much too loud in a make-shift hospital, about that poor guy’s cock. Falco couldn’t imagine anything more humiliating then that.

“Ah, you can look at his cock then. Go grab another towel and press it to his thigh. We don’t want these burns sinking deeper into his skin.” Gabi instructed Falco and waved her hand in a shooing motion.

“What!?” Armin, and Falco blurted together, shocked the girl spoke so freely about intimate matters. Falco stared at Gabi for a moment, then he reluctantly stood up to fetch a towel. For Gabi, he would look another man’s cock in the eye.

_I can’t believe this is happening. I’m at some make-shift hospital, unable to get up, and have been left at the mercy of an overbearing girl, and her friend_. Armin lamented in his head. The incessant pounding was still making his brain throb, but he was determined to figure this out. _All I remember is that I was falling…and maybe something about a fishing boat…there was an awfully bright light_ …Armin’s scrambled thoughts trailed off as he noticed Falco returned.

“I am so sorry…” Falco whispered to Armin, and pulled the blanket back to press a cold, wet cloth to Armin’s thigh. The blanket was laid in such a way that it did cover Armin’s penis. Just barely. That was of little comfort to Armin, who had always kept himself well covered.

“So, are you going to tell us your name?” Gabi questioned, wetting the towel again and pressed it to Armin’s shoulder. Armin shied away at each touch, but he couldn’t escape from them.

_My name_? Armin repeated in his head, and took a moment to remember it. “Ah, I think my name is Armin…” Armin said uncertainly, finding it difficult to remember much. He hadn’t yet figured out how he got here other than that Gabi brought him here.

“You think?” Gabi snorted condescendingly, and continued to doctor Armin alongside Falco the only way they knew how. It was Eldians looking out for Eldians here, and doctors weren’t always available.

“I don’t remember much…” Armin admitted, as he struggled to think of how he got hurt in the first place. Falco gave Armin a sympathetic look.

“You do have a bad gash on your head. It seems like you hit your head pretty hard.” Falco murmured, his tone full of the sympathy expressed in his eyes. What ever happened to Armin, the wounds were hard to look at.

“Oh.” Armin muttered, as if something finally made sense. _Did I…lose my memory_? Armin wondered, already concerned that he was forgetting something important. He looked at Gabi again, this time, he noticed something familiar about her eyes. They were focused, and determined. In a way, Armin felt as if he had seen them before…but the mental image he was receiving in his head was a person who had green eyes…and brown hair. The image was blurry. But there was a clear disconnect because Armin was tripping on how familiar she seemed. She even had thick eyebrows like the one he vaguely remembered from childhood.

It was odd because in his memory, there was a second person with black hair. This Gabi girl looked like both of his once-friends meshed together. In this way, Armin felt drawn to her. She wasn’t them, was she? Was there a them? Or had his mind just split Gabi in half and added color where there wasn’t? Armin didn’t remember enough to have the answers to these questions.

“Do I know you?” Armin asked, deciding her response would answer some of his questions.

“No. You must be from another interment camp.” Gabi responded, dutifully reapplying the cold towel to another burn mark. Armin frowned.

_Interment camp_? Armin repeated in his head. He knew of interment camps. They were not somewhere he wanted to be. “I…I guess…” Armin reluctantly agreed, because he couldn’t remember where his hometown was, nor where it was located. He had memories of the buildings, the roads, and some of the people, but there was no real defining factor. For all he knew, maybe it had been an interment camp, and that was why the word left a bad taste in his mouth.

“You are an Eldian, aren’t you?” Falco questioned, observing the taut muscles on Armin’s body. _Had he been a soldier like us? I’ve never seen him before_. “A…soldier like us, perhaps.”

_Soldier. I was definitely a soldier_. Armin parted his lips to speak. That’s when a elderly man with a receding hairline approached them. He wore a long, white coat, and, had the stance of a doctor.

“Good job, Kids. Let me take a look at this youngster.” He said, as he made shooing motions at the kids with his hands.

“Dr. Jaeger!” Gabi and Falco exclaimed in unison, expressing their relief that someone with more medical knowledge then them was around. He had been tending to other Eldian patients.

_Jaeger_? The name stirred something within Armin. Something familiar that made him yearn for someone. That someone who kinda looked like Gabi. It also ignited a different sense within him that rivaled the already conflicting emotions in him. _I don’t like doctors_.

“Ah, look at you. You got hit with one of those explosions, didn’t you?” Dr. Jaeger tsked, as he slowly knelt down beside Armin, where a moment ago Falco had sat. Falco stood back now, though Gabi was still sitting with him. “And you, Gabi. What are you doing working with that arm? Your cut, and bruised up as well.” Dr. Jaeger pointed out, noticing Gabi’s own wounds, which Armin had overlooked because he had a lot on his mind.

“Explosions?” Armin shuddered, recalling an explosion at the naval fleet. It was large, and loud. People died. He couldn’t remember who, or what caused the explosion, nor why he was there to witness it. _Is that how I got hurt_? Armin wondered, still trying to think past the pain.

“Well, I was tossed out of the enemy airship by some blonde demon with evil eyes.” Gabi muttered, recalling how she and Floch had infiltrated the enemy’s airship, but were caught, and tossed out by a man who singlehandedly confirmed that the demons of Paradis Island were demons for her.

“You’ll have to tell me all about it. You both should rest. Let me tend to him.” Dr. Jaeger told them, and again shooed at them. Gabi planted herself in her seat.

“No. I want to help you help him.” Gabi said, determination sparking through her eyes. She found Armin. She hauled him here. She wasn’t going to leave his side.

“I’ll take your advice, Doctor.” Falco decided, and headed home with a limp in his gait. He and Gabi had been thrown from the air ship, and then she had tossed her hand-crafted bombs at it. Falco had thought she was crazy, and maybe she was, but, he had to admire her devil-may-care attitude. If Gabi was going to die, she was going to die fighting.

Neither of them were quite sure how they survived the fall, with minimal injuries, but neither of them were focused on themselves. Marley was in ruins, and disarray. There were wounded Marleyans and Eldians about.

“Do I know you? Jaeger, it sounds…familiar.” Armin asked, wanting to piece together his fractured memory.

“I am one of the only Eldian doctors. I am sure my name is familiar.” Dr. Jaeger answered, as he began to look over Armin’s body. The dark bruising on Armin’s chest was an indicator he could have a broken rib bone. The injuries were consistent with a hard fall. The burns were evident of one of the explosions. There had been so many explosions around the town during the attack. Armin could have gotten hurt by any of them.

“He’s been here for ages. Like, he’s ancient.” Gabi commented, and helped Dr. Jaeger tend to Armin’s wounds. Armin involuntarily groaned, and or hissed each time he was touched, or moved the way they needed him to. Pain was something Armin was used to, but it didn’t mean he liked it. His tolerance for pain was high.

There were citizens, and other soldiers in the same makeshift hospital wing who had screamed bloody murder the entire time they were tended to. Armin wasn’t screaming, and his wounds were quite a bit more alarming. Armin had strength, and resolve. This was not lost on Gabi who despite herself, had more than once eyed Armin’s taut muscles on his arms. Falco didn’t have such nice arms. It was evident that Armin had trained a lot.

“We can’t give you anything for the pain. All of the medicine is being focused, and reserved for the Marleyans. You’re just going to have to tough it out.” Dr. Jaeger said, when he had done all he could do for Armin.

“He’ll be okay. I’ll keep him company.” Gabi spoke in Armin’s place, and carefully adjusted the way she sat.

“That’s okay…I didn’t expect any different.” Armin said, because if there was one thing he remembered clearly, it was that his life had been one of agony. There was constant emotional pain he bottled up, and then different types of physical pain that had followed him into the here and now. But unlike some people, he was not going to cry about it. Not anymore.

“Good. Now, it’s your turn Gabi.” Dr. Jaeger decided, and began to look Gabi over, taking in the scrapes and bruises from the fall. Armin focused on them, to help distract himself from the pain. Gabi was tough, like he was. He could see that in the way that she didn’t flinch, nor cry because of her wounds. Dr. Jaeger, he noted, had a frail voice. His movements were slow, and although he was still precise when it counted, his hands shook. His skin was dry, and brown like ancient leather. He had to be in his eighties.

What work he performed on the teenagers was done from a lifetime of muscle memory. Armin might have been concerned, but he had been patched up rather well, and Gabi seemed to be receiving the same measured, calculated help. Gabi was a bundle of energy as she expressly, and animatedly told the doctor her inspiring story of infiltrating the enemy air ship, and murdering one of the crew members. Armin frowned, and felt a pang of sadness and dread that he couldn’t discern the reason for. Maybe he was just empathetic towards other people, even if they were the enemy…but he definitely didn’t like the way Gabi spoke about the Eldian Devils. Armin refrained from voicing his concerns, and let his eyes close. He was tired, and hurting.

As Armin drifted off into a light, fitful sleep, Gabi’s voice pursued him, and created images within his mind of an blurry air ship that rained debris when it was hit. Armin felt as if he was falling, and falling, and falling still…plummeting to an unforgiving fate.


	2. The Friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin realizes he has a friend in Gabi.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> According to the FanWiki page, Gabi is twelve years old. I find this difficult to believe for varying reasons. However, if that is true, and if Armin is actually nineteen as the page claims him to now be, I had to make some adjustments to their ages for this fanfiction to work and not look creepy, so try to ignore how the age changes would screw with the original manga's past and present. Let's not think about any of it because this is a fanfiction.
> 
> Honestly, the chapter was supposed to end a bit differently, but I found the ending I have now is fine. I am trying to keep characters in character. However, I realize there are some incidents, or moments where they might deviate a bit. Sorry. Not sorry. 
> 
> Note that this chapter is rated M for a reason. ;)   
> And it's a bit sad... ;~;
> 
> On a last note, I do not own Attack on Titan and I do not own the characters.

**Lost**

**Chapter 2: The Friend**

 

Pain did not scare Armin.

Falling did.

He felt as if he was falling, and nothing could break his fall. His hands reached for something that wasn’t there. A part of him that was lost? With nothing to grab, he smacked into his own body, and snapped his eyes open. Armin was panting, and wheezing from the fright that coursed through his veins.

_Where am I_? Was Armin’s first wild thought as he looked around himself. His mobility was impaired, but his eyesight was good, and as he saw the other patients, he remembered he was in the Eldian hospital. Or, what they called a hospital. It wasn’t a hospital. It was some elongated building that housed Eldians who were barred from the hospital from being Eldians. Armin vaguely remembered hearing that, maybe from one of the ranting patients. He didn’t quite remember, but it bothered him that he was in a place like this when he should be…should be… _where_? Armin wondered, and flinched as something cool, and wet was pressed to his forehead.

“Welcome back to the living.” Gabi greeted, pressing a damp towel to Armin’s hot forehead. He was sweating from fear, and assumedly pain. Armin looked at her and noticed that her left arm was slung into a makeshift cast, which mirrored his right arm. It seemed as if she hadn’t left his side, as if she felt a responsibility towards him, being a fellow, injured Eldian. Armin let out a small sigh as he calmed himself down.

“How long have I been out?” Armin asked, though he could tell from the sunlight pouring in from the windows that the night was long gone.

“Uh, it’s noon now so…” Gabi trailed off, with a dismissive shrug.

_Noon. That’s at least six hours_ …Armin fretted, feeling dread nestle itself in the pit of his stomach. He felt as if he had somewhere to be…and that bothered him because he didn’t know where he was supposed to be, only that it wasn’t laid up in bed here.

A small groan left Armin’s lips as he tried to push himself up, but the agony in his chest made him lay back down. This was a problem because he had to piss, and that Dr. Jaeger was no where in sight, nor was Falco. Armin also felt weak from hunger, and a cursory glance around the room told him that food wasn’t exactly being handed out. He grit his teeth, and decided to hold his personal needs in for awhile longer.

“Are you hungry? I told my mother all about you, and she gave me an apple to give to you.” Gabi offered, holding out a red apple to Armin. Armin slowly took the apple with his good hand and bit into it. The apple was juicy, and sweet, which quenched some of his thirst that he had.

“Thank you.” Armin thanked her gratefully, and chewed quietly, savoring the taste of the apple. “Is there a uh…man around here who could, uh…help me outside?” Armin tentatively wondered then, beating around the bush because he didn’t want to outright say he had to pee. Gabi would probably tease him, and Armin did not want that.

“No. Why?” Gabi asked, completely obtuse to the notion that Armin might have personal business to take care of. Armin sighed, and shifted uncomfortably.

Of course there was no man handy. That would be too convenient. Armin decided to just tell her.

“I have to use the bathroom.” Armin told her, as his cheeks tinted pink. As a soldier, he had always been able to be independent, and able to hold his bladder until an opportunity arrived for him to relieve himself, but now, he couldn’t move on his own. Gabi blinked.

“Then let’s go.” Gabi said without hesitation. Armin didn’t move. “What are you waiting for?” Gabi questioned, confused as to why the boy wasn’t jumping right up to help her help him. Armin looked away from her.

“Do I have to say it?” Armin responded, not wanting to embarrass himself more than he already was, nor did he want to offend her. Gabi folded one arm over her cast, and tapped her foot impatiently, expecting an answer. “You’re a girl, and I’m a boy.” Armin explained softly, his cheeks still pink. Gabi blinked.

“So what’s your point? I already saw your cock.” Gabi reminded Armin, too bluntly for his comfort. Armin flinched, and flushed red.

_I won’t ever forget that_. Armin thought glumly, and reluctantly let Gabi help him up. They were both broken and injured, but without the proper medical personnel to help him, Gabi was his only option. Armin’s pride was damaged as he allowed Gabi to help him with one of the most private, intimate needs a human had. It just wasn’t dignified.

None of this was.

Once Armin settled back against the blanket, that was the only thing separating him from the wood of the floor, he just wanted to pull the blanket over his head and try to sleep the pain, and humiliation away. Gabi didn’t let him.

“So what did you dream about that made you flail and wake?” Gabi asked, since she, like Armin, was resting her wounds. Although unlike Armin, she would have to return home when night fell. At the prompt, Armin thought back to how he thought he was falling again.

“I was falling, and I thought I crashed.” Armin answered, resting a hand over his stomach. The skin was raw, and inflamed, which made him shift his hand back on to the uncomfortable ground.  He was already bored, and sore just from laying around. This wasn’t what he was used to. Armin knew he was, and always had been active. Maybe he wasn’t a fighter, but he knew how to fight.

“Ooh. A falling dream. You must have a lot of insecurities, and anxious habits.” Gabi decided, remembering a book she read before that explained what specific dreams meant. Armin furrowed his eyebrows at her. He really was an insecure person, and he did have anxious habits, but it was hard for him to believe that his insecurities were what caused him to dream about falling when he was pretty sure he fell for real. “Or,” Gabi continued, seeing the doubt expressed in Armin’s analytical eyes, “You feel really out of control right now and that is bothering you.”

“Or I just fell from a far height and couldn’t catch myself.” Armin pointed out, believing he really had fell. But from where? And how far? Was he pushed? Did the explosion knock him off his feet? There was a lot about himself that he remembered, but it seemed like a huge chunk of information, and events were missing. He was a soldier. Yet, he didn’t know his rank, team, nor affiliation.

“Maybe. So what’s your star sign?” Gabi asked then, tilting her head curiously, while she rested one hand on her knee. Some of her pretty, black hair fell into her face, from how she wore it half tied up in the back. Armin blinked at her again, with confusion, so Gabi clarified. “What’s your birthday?”

“My birthday?” Armin repeated, thrown off by the question. What did his birthday have to do with anything? Armin wasn’t sure, but he answered her anyways. “November third. I am sixteen. Why?” Armin was guarded by nature.

“April fourteenth for me, making me fifteen. I am an Aries.” Gabi gloated, setting a hand on her hip, and stuck her nose in the air. She was proud of who she was, and while there was nothing wrong with that in theory, Armin was rubbed the wrong way whenever she boasted. Would it hurt her to be a bit humble? “According to the books, this will be an explosive friendship.” Gabi said thoughtfully, putting a hand on her chin with excited thought.

“Friendship?” Armin questioned, surprised that she already considered them friends. Some part of him wanted to tell her that he already had friends, or that it was too soon for them to consider themselves friends, but he voiced none of his concerns. If she was on his side, it was probably for the best.

“Yeah. I saved your life. You kinda owe me everything.” Gabi reminded Armin, in that overbearing away she had about her. Armin almost wished she hadn’t saved his life, as he sighed, and shifted slowly on to his left side. He was careful not to rub the burn wounds any more than he had to.

He couldn’t help but to feel that once upon a time, he had had friends who never would have thrust it in his face that they saved his life.

_I don’t even remember them…but I miss them_.

. . .

Every morning Gabi returned to the makeshift hospital like clockwork. She would enter the building as if she owned the place, and walked with purpose, and kept her head held high. And as insufferable as Gabi could be throughout the long days, Armin was starting to realize that the nights were longer without her loud, annoying presence.

Maybe it was because he spent most of the night awake, after falling asleep, only to wake up because of a nightmare. In his dreams, he was typically falling, or flying through the air with the aid of a machine he couldn’t remember the name of. There were other nightmares where he was on a rooftop, watching that green-eyed boy who looked like Gabi get eaten in his place. And in some dreams he was shooting a female soldier. Then there were the occasional nightmares of him looking like a girl, being tied down to a chair, while a gross man insisted he speak and expose his ‘pretty voice.’

Most of the nightmares he couldn’t make sense of. Had he experienced these events personally or were they figments of his imagination, brought on by pain? What ever the reality was, there was one reoccurring nightmare that made Armin never want to sleep again. He was staring at a skinless titan, who was emitting a painful steam that seared the skin off of his own flesh and mirrored the burn wounds on the right side of Armin’s body. The haunting dream kept him awake more often then not at night, and sometimes during the day when Gabi was talking too much and he nodded off to the sound of her chatter.

The only bright side to Armin being awake at odd hours of the night was that he got to listen to other patients talk. And they did. He learned a lot about the Eldians through them, and Marley. The information he gained he stored away in his head to sort through the next time there was a quiet moment. There was one patient, however, that, maybe obsessively compulsively frigged himself at least once a night. Armin would clap his hands over his ears and would try to tune out the heavy breaths, and muffled moans. It wasn’t something he wanted to hear, nor replicate for other patients.

Admittedly, he had tried, once or twice, out of boredom, but he would get too nervous, and would abandon the potential play time. He didn’t want to be _that_ guy. It was too personal of a action to perform around others, even if they were assumedly sleeping. Armin just wasn’t perverted.

Through all of the hell he endured over the years, he managed to maintain a certain level of innocence and he wasn’t about to taint it now because he was bored, and hating life. Armin wanted to get up, and explore the foreign land that Gabi, and the other patients talked about. He was never one who enjoyed being laid up in bed, and at this rate, he would lose the muscles he gained, which was a problem if his intuition was right because all Armin could think was that he didn’t belong here.

It was a feeling that plagued his waking, and sleeping mind.

Even during the moments where he almost got lost in Gabi’s chatter, he still felt it in his gut that none of this was right. He wasn’t meant to be here. And no matter how hard he tried to adjust to the building he occupied, he just couldn’t shake the displacement he felt. Gabi was the only positive force in his otherwise bleak, boring existence. She always had a smile—unless she was pissed off and ranting, which happened a lot, and randomly.

Although, the passion Gabi expressed tended to comfort Armin because it was reminiscent of the green eyed person of his memories, he saw other sides of Gabi that were familiar. When she ate, she was messy, and loud, like some other mystery girl Armin had in his mind.

_Why can’t I remember their names, or their faces? Or what they meant to me_? Armin wondered a lot, because he was bothered by the gaps in his memory. He was also bothered that Gabi could remind him of so many people he was sure he cared about. Her black hair was so like a girl that endlessly followed the green-haired boy. It was the similarities to his friends, or the people he had known that made Armin pay attention to her.

Then again, it wasn’t like anyone else was clamoring to talk to Armin. Some of the other patients would engage in small talk with him, but those conversations didn’t lead anywhere. Dr. Jaeger came around sometimes to check on Armin’s progress. Armin swore he had been treated by a Dr. Jaeger before a lot when he was younger, but even though this Dr. Jaeger shared so many similarities with the one from his memories, Armin didn’t think they were one in the same. But how many Jaegers were doctors?

Once, Armin asked Dr. Jaeger if he had had children. It was a question Armin regretted instantly because of the haunting pain that overcame the elderly man. Armin learned, a bit guiltily, that the man had had children…and one of them did become a doctor, but that it was impossible for Armin to have met him because the son hadn’t lived here in over twenty years. Armin didn’t ask again, and he didn’t pry for details. The cost of retelling some stories weren’t worth the price.

And speaking of stories, Gabi always had a story to tell. Armin knew he should reciprocate the stories, and tell some of his own stories but he was reluctant to share them. Armin felt as if he told someone his deepest secrets before, and then was betrayed by the person. That feeling, along with the displacement feeling kept him rather quiet. Gabi didn’t seem to notice much. She sure liked being the center of attention.

In that way, they were opposites. Armin had always been introverted, and insecure about himself. Gabi was an extrovert, and oozed insufferable confidence. The word ‘humble’ was not in her dictionary, and she sure as hell didn’t know how to apologize either. Armin was humble, and knew how, and when to apologize. Not that they really had fights. Armin made damn sure not to piss her off, even when she mocked, and or teased him, as she often did.

Just the sheer way Gabi would emasculate him reminded him of different friends he had. Not that he ever enjoyed being belittled, but at this point, negative attention was better than no attention at all so Armin didn’t say much to dissuade her from poking at his ego. She did save his life. Something she mentioned at least once a day, among some of her other fascinating exploits that as tired as Armin was of hearing about it, it wasn’t like he was offering much else in the way of conversation.

Their dynamic changed when Armin fell asleep listening to her blather on, only to wake back up screaming, in a rare show of emotion that startled some of the other patients. Armin had had _that_ dream again, where he was being burned alive by steam. There was nothing more horrific to him then that nightmare, and while it normally haunted him at night, it had came during a afternoon nap, and now Gabi saw how he normally flipped out at night;

It started with the scream. Gabi’s hands grabbed his shaking shoulders. The burn was irritated. Armin pushed her away in a bout of hysteria, while letting out another noise of fear, and alarm. Gabi was telling him that, “You’re okay. Everything’s okay,” but nothing was okay. Nothing was ever okay when he had that nightmare. It was just too real, and rattled him to his core.

He didn’t want to be touched. And he definitely didn’t want to hear that he was okay, when he wasn’t. “Don’t touch me!” Was all Armin remembered shouting back at her, and then the next thing he knew, was that she had a arm curled around him.

That one bit of compassionate human contact overwhelmed Armin’s senses, and carved a crack into the tough wall he had around himself. Armin didn’t have the heart to push her away now that she was giving him something he wanted. He would admit it, but he craved positive human contact. Gabi had her arm securely around him, and with unusual feminine strength, she was pressing him against her warm body. Armin inhaled shakily, and took in the girl’s musky scent. There was something oddly comforting about it that relaxed him enough to talk to her.

“The heat was so real…” Armin murmured, bothered by how real the dream felt. The only difference now was that he had someone to see the pain in his eyes and try to absolve it.

“Of course it was. Dr. Jaeger said that one of our blimps exploded that day. You being the only survivor, Falco says you’ll have nightmares and survivor guilt.” Gabi agreed, and rubbed his back as she spoke. Since her other arm was in the cast, she couldn’t do anything with it. Armin tensed as a cold chill spread through his body like expanding ice. It wasn’t the first time that Dr. Jaeger, or Gabi mentioned he must have been manning the Marley blimp for the festival that day, because it was shot out of the sky, along with the enemy’s blimp. Neither of them, not for a minute, assumed that Armin was from the enemy’s blimp.

“Falco said that? But how do you know about the nightmares?” Armin asked, since he didn’t tend to have terrible nightmares during the day. At least, he didn’t wake up screaming from them.

“Well, let’s see. When you doze off during my exciting feats of scaling the enemy air ship, you begin to toss and turn and then you sweat. It’s kind of gross, actually, so I keep talking to you and that seems to calm you down for awhile, but then you just start talking in your sleep, and you even cry a bit kinda like how you are now.” Gabi answered nonchalantly, not taking the time to spare his masculine pride at all. Armin’s blue eyes widened a bit at the mention of tears.

“I—I’m not—” Armin began, but as he rubbed at his eyes with his only good arm, his face was wet. He flushed red with shame, and grit his teeth together, especially as Gabi laughed heartily in the way that she did. As embarrassing as it was, Armin realized that Gabi had been clever enough to notice that if she talked to him when he dozed off, his sleep was slightly more peaceful.

So maybe Gabi was a bit rough around the edges, but she was kind too, and that meant a lot to Armin, whose nerves were frazzled from the nightmare.

“Actually, Falco’s been pretty mad at me lately. He says I spend too much time with you.” Gabi admitted, thinking back to the various arguments she engaged in with Falco over how often she was visiting Armin. She didn’t know what Falco’s problem was, but she was irritated none the less. As far as she was concerned, Falco could go talk to his guy friends or his family. Armin didn’t have anyone to talk to. He was alone, and he knew it too. It didn’t help that he couldn’t remember much.

“Why…why do you keep coming back? It doesn’t sound like my company is very enjoyable.” Armin wondered, feeling as if he was a burden. Gabi brought small snacks to him. She apparently talked to him when he slept to ease his otherwise troubled mind. And she helped him every time he had to relieve himself. That never got less embarrassing. Most importantly, she talked to him, even if it was at him.

“Isn’t it obvious?” Gabi prompted, as if nothing was more obvious than why she kept coming back to him. “You need a friend.” Armin pulled away from her, and stared at her with surprised awe. “You told me you don’t have any family, and the friends you have, you don’t remember. That must be a scary, and sad feeling.” Gabi explained, dawning sympathetic eyes.

Insufferable as Gabi was, she cared about people, and Armin was amongst that group. Armin was blown away by her dedication to her surprisingly kind heart. He had read her all wrong before, but, for all of the teasing, and poking, she did care about his feelings. And he swore that she might even ask him how he felt, which was something he hadn’t been asked in a long time because as a soldier, he had been required to ‘shut up and deal’ with what ever problem came his way.

There had not been any therapy—not even a discussion when he had been sexually harassed by that man when he doubled as a girl in place of someone he knew. Someone he had thought was kind and pretty until she turned into a icy bitch. Talk about a betrayal. Gabi at least had been prickly from the start—Armin had no delusions about her being anything other than a Holly. Hollies were pretty, but they had thorns.

“Thank you.” Was all Armin could say, because he had met many purely selfish people before, and while Gabi could be selfish too, there was something pure about her. He wasn’t sure where it came from, but it was there, and he found himself smiling a little. Most people, especially strangers would not have taken the time to make sure he was okay, and taken care of.

Some Eldian’s had already died in the short time that Armin had been here, these last few weeks. There was only one proper doctor, Dr. Jaeger. The other two that flitted about were volunteers who while they did what they could, some wounds were too grievous and the hospital still wasn’t accepting Eldian’s, insisting their rooms were still full of Marley’s own. If not for Gabi, and Falco’s help on occasion, Armin wasn’t sure what would have happened to him.

“Now, whose Eren?” Gabi questioned, as she grabbed his good hand with hers. Armin’s eyes widened a bit at the familiar name. “You say his name a lot in your sleep. Well, you call out for many people, but, Eren is a reoccurring one.” Now was apparently the time to prompt Armin with questions.

“I…I don’t remember…” Armin answered, which prompted Gabi to ask about Mikasa, Levi, Erwin, and Jean. Armin could only shake his head with dismay. The names were familiar, but he couldn’t put a face to a name. He thought of the green eyed boy, and thought the name ‘Eren’ might apply to him, but there was no definitive way of knowing at this point. Gabi puffed her cheeks out with frustration as she did out of habit, and sat back with thought.

What more was she going to ask?

“Okay. Fine. If you’re not remembering anything in your conscious stage, I’ll just have to keep a record of what you say at night.” Gabi suggested, with a playful wink. Armin paled a bit, and decided he would try to stay awake when Gabi was present. He didn’t want his nightmares to be wrote down on paper. That sounded awful. What if he said something stupid? Or what if he said something embarrassing?

_I better try to stay awake_. Armin told himself, and slowly tried to settle back down. Gabi grabbed his shoulder, stopping him.

“Wait. Your burn wounds aren’t raw anymore.” Gabi pointed out, alluding to something. Armin raised an questioning eyebrow at her. “Let me bathe you.” Gabi stated seriously. It was not a question. Armin balked. “I’ve already seen your—”

“Don’t say it!” Armin shouted, still mortified that Gabi had seen the most intimate part of his body, and she wouldn’t let him forget it. Not for a minute. And now she wanted to _bathe_ him!? Yeah, maybe he needed a bath, but she was specifically referring to a sponge-bath, which, even if he could get over the shock of that, it wasn’t like there was somewhere private they could go. The strain would be too much on his chest if they tried to find a quiet place and even then, there were problems with that.

“Then shut up and let me bathe you.” Gabi insisted, leaving Armin no choice in the matter. She was stubborn, and Armin knew if he argued with her, he would lose, and then she’d mock him—she was going to mock him anyways, but he didn’t need to be emasculated any more then he had to be. Armin swallowed hard, and tried to think past the nervousness that pounded through his head.

“You don’t need sight to wash me. Just…just feel around…” Armin relented, against his better intuition.

“Good. I’m already prepared.” Gabi quipped, and gestured to the large bucket she had fetched when Armin was sleeping, and had hauled it in. Armin grimaced at it. He had briefly wondered what it’s purpose was, and now that he knew, he wished he didn’t. “So just lay back and let me take care of you.” Gabi told Armin, who sucked in a breath for courage, and slowly settled down with a wince.

_This is not dignified_. Armin thought to himself and looked up at the ceiling. He couldn’t look at Gabi, knowing she was going to bath him. The noise of water resounded in Armin’s ears, and he shut his eyes as the cold towel pressed against his face. He could only assume there was soap on it, and hoped that this wouldn’t be as painful as he feared it was going to be.

No one had taken care of him in years. If he had needed something, he got it himself. Being self sufficient wasn’t even part of his military training. It had been ingrained into him since he was small, and to have someone take care of him now hurt his pride. He didn’t think it had much to do with her gender, either. That was definitely a part of why the blush was on his face, but it was more because he didn’t want to have to rely on someone else to survive, and perform basic necessities like bathing.

And the kicker was that Armin could grab the towel from her, and could awkwardly wash himself, but even as the wet towel was brushed over his chest, he didn’t grab it. _I can’t believe that I want this_. Armin groaned to himself, and jumped a bit when her towel-clothed hand dipped into the crevice of his armpit. It was ticklish, and momentarily distracted him from his shameful realization.

But then her hand was trailing over his stomach, and he felt his face flush red all over again. It was a tender touch that while Armin knew it was platonic, he was having a hard time telling that to his cock, that was unabashedly finding excitement in the fact that a cute, and kind girl who reminded him of just about everyone he was missing was giving him a bath.

Her hand dipped lower. “Oh! You’re _firm_ firm.” Gabi exclaimed, as an embarrassed blush spread across her face. Armin draped his good arm over his eyes, and hoped the shame, and embarrassment that flooded through his veins would kill him. “How impressive.” Gabi praised, and went about washing him, as if this wasn’t as embarrassing as it was.

_It can’t get worse than this_. Armin told himself, and deliberately refrained from speaking. There was nothing he could say to make this okay. She was going to think that he was a pervert, or that he liked her, or…or…a sudden jolt of pleasure zapped his nerves, making him jump. “What’re you doing!?” Armin shrieked with alarm.

“Washing you.” Gabi responded without hesitation, and continued to rub the towel against the intimate part of Armin’s body. The towel was rough, and Armin really didn’t want her hand anywhere near his pleasure areas that had been dormant for a long time.

“Ow, don’t—just don’t.” Armin told her, feeling as if he was clean enough, because if he wasn’t, an accident might happen, and he’d never be able to look at her again.

“Ahh. Okay, I won’t use the towel.” Gabi decided, as she pulled away from Armin. She dipped her hand into the water, and then soaped up.

“Wait. What do you mean—” Armin began to ask, then saw her hand disappear under the blanket. All thought disappeared from his mind the moment her soft, feminine hand touched his hard flesh. “Stop. Stop.” Armin whispered, alarmed that her hand was touching him in a way that it shouldn’t.

“Don’t be a baby. It’s just a bath.” Gabi chided Armin with a roll of her eyes, and continued to palm at his penis, that throbbed with anticipation. It had a mind of its own, because Armin’s mind was horrified, and mortified that any of this was happening to him. He self consciously looked around himself. No one seemed to be paying attention to them, so he kept his voice low to not attract onlookers.

“I’m clean—it’s clean, it’s—” Armin’s protest broke off into an involuntary moan that he muffled with his hand. “I think—I think you should really stop.” Armin said after a moment, and shuffled his legs a bit.

“Ugh, I know what I’m doing.” Gabi argued, letting her oppositional defiance take his words as a challenge, and deliberately began to caress, and rub the warm cock. Armin gasped, and flushed red as pleasure overwhelmed his senses. Her wet hand felt fucking amazing, but Armin didn’t want to be vulnerable in front of her. Not here. Not now.

“Gabi, stop. Stop. I’m going to—” Armin tried again to protest, and sound serious, but another moan interrupted his pleas. His cock was hand-happy, because it was pulsating, and throbbing with the need for release. The shame of it was that she hadn’t even been touching him for long.

“Just stop complaining and let me wash you. It’s not like something’s going to happen if I—” Gabi bickered irritably until the cock convulsed in her hand. She blinked. Armin moaned into his hand, while his skin flushed bright red. He was trembling, and panting, though he refused to open his eyes. He knew exactly what happened. “Eww! You got me sticky! What—what was that?” Gabi exclaimed, retracting her hand. There was a clear, sticky substance on it. She frowned with disgust and shoved her hand into the bucket.

“I tried…I tried to tell you not to touch me like that…” Armin stammered, as he shifted on to his side to create the illusion of space between them. There was no way he could look at her now. Not after that. Gabi hadn’t listened to him. She didn’t stop. Not that it was entirely her fault. Armin knew he should have been able to hold back. But he hadn’t. And the implications of that shook him up. He hadn’t come here to crush on some domineering, competitive girl who was a menagerie of his friends he couldn’t remember.

“Ooh, so you’re blaming me. Okay then. That’s the last time I help you, then.” Gabi said stubbornly, as she stood up, and picked the bucket up. Armin didn’t try to stop her as she left. He needed to hide away under the blanket and think about how fucked up he must be in the hand to have gotten off over that. As a soldier, he should have had more control to not get excited that a cute female was touching him in a decidedly platonic manner.

For hours, Armin was alone with his thoughts. As embarrassed as he was about what had happened, he still expected Gabi to return once she cooled off. But when night befell the world, Armin knew she wasn’t coming back, and that stressed him out.

_I really did make her mad, damn it_ …Armin berated himself, and shifted to lay flat on his stomach. He closed his eyes and tried to sleep, but he kept thinking about Gabi, and wondering just how mad she was at him. Some part of him knew that he should have been mad at her, but he really wasn’t. Yeah, he wished she would have listened to him, but damn, it had felt good...and that was the problem, wasn’t it?

In the morning, Armin kept expecting, and hoping that Gabi would come through at door, and they could pretend as if yesterday never happened. But it had happened. And even as the afternoon came, and Armin was realizing that she wasn’t coming back, he still withheld himself from having a pity party.

What Armin did do was pick himself up, and managed to stay strong until he was outside, where Gabi normally helped him go, to relieve himself. The feat had taken all of his resolve, and military training to accomplish because the pain in his chest was still excruciating. Something had broken, Armin was sure of that.

Bed rest was his only option to heal, and it sucked. He was on his own, and even though he managed to get himself outside, and back inside, it didn’t mean he should have. The strain it had put on his body had been hefty, and he found himself hurting for hours after the fact. But when the sun went down, Armin’s last hope of hearing Gabi chatter at him was gone. He strategically pulled the blanket over his head, and cried quietly, longing for his only friend.

Two more insufferably boring, quiet days passed by that Gabi did not grace him with her presence. Armin suffered from the loneliness that plagued him, and at this point, he couldn’t help but to feel a bit betrayed. He had just thought he found his first friend, and then she did something stupid, and now she was gone and he wasn’t happy. This life was miserable, and he just wanted to heal so he could search his real friends out. Gabi wasn’t his real friend. That’s what he began to tell himself. It was the only way he could begin to cope with the loss of that bundle of yellow energy.

And it wasn’t even that he might have developed a crush on her. He just missed her company. Having someone to talk to. Listen to. The other remaining patients—some had healed and left, were not too chatty. Everyone was trying to recover. Armin understood that and tried not to mope too much. He didn’t want to depress others.

All there was to do was eat, mope, sleep, and mope some more. The hours were long, and torturous. The two nights were worse. And by the third morning, Armin didn’t expect the doors to open at all. When they did, he didn’t look up. Other people came and went. Gabi was gone, and she wasn’t coming back. That’s what Armin believed, so when a light hand clasped his shoulder, he jerked reflexively.

“Hey.” Armin looked up at the familiar voice, and was relieved to see Gabi. She came back. Armin pushed himself up, eager to apologize, and beg her to stay and swear that that incident would never happen again. “Let’s not fight.  I don’t like it.” Gabi said, speaking before Armin had a chance to. Armin paused.

Was this Gabi’s way of apologizing?

“I agree. And, I swear that will never happen again.” Armin swore, because if he lost Gabi again before he was healed, he was concerned as to what path his lonely mind would take him. Gabi tilted her head to the side, which caused some of her pretty black strands to fall in her face.

“What’re you apologizing for?” Gabi wondered, perplexed that he was the one apologizing. Armin flushed red at the thought of having to say it out loud. Thankfully, he didn’t have to because Gabi continued. “I was the one who did something bad to you.” Gabi confessed, and gently grabbed Armin’s hand. There was something soft about the tone of her voice that made Armin listen to her.

She was right. Gabi touched him inappropriately, and then got mad at him when he responded the way men do to being grabbed like that. Worse, she fucking abandoned him, and honestly, Armin wasn’t sure if he was going to heal from that or not, but so long as Gabi was apologizing, he wasn’t going to exacerbate the issue.

“You left me.” Armin told her, as he stared at the ground. He was hurt, and he was upset.

“I was mad at you for being mad at me. I had only been trying to help you and then you were being so difficult that I guess I just…I didn’t stop because I didn’t think it was a big deal. I didn’t know that what I was doing was wrong…and I…” Gabi paused, and sucked in a breath. “I won’t touch you like that again.” Gabi promised, and that was enough to make Armin feel a little better.

Yeah, she could have apologized…she should have apologized…but she was here, and she was admitting that on some level, she had been wrong. Gabi was trying. Armin decided to try too.

“Thank you for coming back. I’ve…been pretty bored…” Armin murmured, downplaying just how miserable he had been without her. He felt as if maybe the topic should be broached more, but at this point, Armin wanted to put the past behind him.

“Well, Falco knocked some sense into me. He explained that I, uh, forced you to do something that you didn’t want to do, and that that is…bad. Really bad.” Gabi admitted, recalling the explosive argument she had with Falco who couldn’t believe that she did what she did. Armin balked at her.

“You…you t-told Falco!?” Armin stammered loudly, with shock, and horror. He knew that Gabi was close to Falco, but…she really told him…what did she tell him? How did she tell him?

“Yeah. We got into a pretty big fight about it, actually. But when I thought about it, I guess he was sort of right…and I never meant to make you feel that way, or do _that_.” Gabi insisted, caressing her thumb over his knuckles. Her expressive eyes were sympathetic, and sincere. Armin hadn’t seen her this way before, but he was sure that she was sorry.

At least, she was sorry about the touching him part. Armin didn’t think there was any universe where he could make her understand how humiliating it was that she had told Falco about the incident. And he wasn’t even going to try because he didn’t want to piss her off again.

“Can you…just tell me about your day?” Armin questioned, wanting desperately to just move on with their lives, and pretend that the dark days without her hadn’t happened. Gabi brightened a bit at the opportunity to talk about herself.

“Sure!” Gabi enthused, and began to tell Armin everything that she had done while she neglected to visit him.

And this time, Armin did not doze off. He listened to every word he said, and let her keep his hand in hers because for the moment, they were two wounded soldiers who were resting their injuries in the presence of one another.


	3. New Beginnings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin recovers enough to get a glimpse of Marley.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially I figured Armin would be laid up in bed for a few months. However, I did some research and a fractured and or broken rib, depending, takes about 7 weeks to heal, and hence, about 7 weeks pass by. Now, I know the Marley episodes feature not-cold whether, and I figure that cold whether wouldn't actually occur for a few more months in Marley, as far as the manga is concerned, but I had a vision for the story and I went with it. By the time Armin's healed, it's suddenly winter. Yup. Winter is pretty. And cold. Also, according to the wikifan page of everything AoT, it stated that amongst Marley's vast technology, they do have camera's. Can anyone confirm that? And if so, what type of camera? I specifically reference an older model. 
> 
> As for Gabi's family, most of her family, according to the Wikipage, do not have names. There's only Reiner and his mother, Karina. Gabi's aunt? God, I don't understand family trees sometimes. In either case, I figured I wouldn't take the time to name them. And I forget what they look like. I might look into that later. 
> 
> Once again, I do not own Attack on Titan and I do not own the characters. Enjoy. ;)

**Lost**

**Chapter 3: New Beginnings**

Seven weeks passed. In that time, Armin opened up to Gabi, and told her about his nightmares, when they haunted him and kept him awake. She always insisted that the different nightmares were fears that were expressing themselves within his subconscious, and alluded to insecurities Armin actually did have. It took him a bit longer to tell her about what little he remembered of his personal life, though he kept the hardships to himself. He just couldn’t bring himself to trust her completely. There was a reason he was holding back, even though he didn’t quite know what that reason was.

Fear? Displacement?

Whatever the reason, it made him uncomfortable that Gabi was so open with him—he swore he knew just about everything there was to know about her, but he was still withholding some of his more personal memories to himself. Gabi didn’t press him about it either, which was a relief to him because there were things he wasn’t ready to share with her.

As the days went on, neither of them mentioned the bathing incident. It was becoming a distant memory. Only Armin seemed to think about it some days, but he kept that to himself. Those were the days Armin unintentionally noticed Gabi’s breasts, which were small, but perky. They were the days were Gabi wore feminine outfits, which was unusual for Armin to see, because, in his time of the military, women wore the same outfit as the men did.

None of the days were particularly eventful, yet Armin looked forwards to them. It was all he had, since he couldn’t freely get up, and wander the town. It was on his to-do-list, but with the injured rib, he just had to deal with being laid up in bed for hours at a time. That led to bed sores, and general discomfort. Gabi pretty much played doctor, in place of Dr. Jaeger who visited on occasion to check his progress. Once, or twice Gabi had Armin roll over on to his stomach, and proceeded to rub the knots and kinks out of his back.

Nothing even remotely sexual occurred. They were damn careful about keeping within the friend-meter. It suited them. And speaking of friends, Armin became friends with Falco, who came around more to keep an eye on Gabi and was pleased that the two weren’t flirting with each other. This only happened because Falco had extended a hand to Armin shortly after the _incident_. It was a rainy afternoon that Falco had come, while Gabi had had business to take care of. Something about a cousin.

Falco’s presence had startled Armin. He seemed to realize this too, and approached slowly. “Hey. I uh…” Falco paused uneasily, and rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “I heard what happened…and I wanted to hear it from you. Did you really tell her to stop?” Falco asked tentatively, not really sure how to broach this topic. Armin groaned and set a hand on his forehead.

“I did tell her to stop.” Armin confirmed, drawing his legs against himself. Sitting upright pained him. Breathing hurt. Talking was agony too. “I don’t think she really realized what she was doing.” Armin added, in her defense. Not that she needed one.

“Ugh. Yeah, that sounds like Gabi.” Falco said with a sigh because he knew Gabi too well, to know she was dense sometimes. He loved her, but, damn…“I swear, she has more testosterone than I sometimes…” Falco muttered grimly. Armin chuckled, then regretted it because laughing hurt.

“She does come off as a bit domineering…” Armin hesitantly agreed, and watched for Falco’s reaction. Sometimes friends said things about their friends to others, who weren’t quite allowed to share their sediments. Falco laughed, which made Armin relax. They were engaging in comraderies over the strong-willed girl they knew, and it was kind of nice.

“Yeah, she’s always been dominant like that, even when we were young. I guess she’s why I’m…well, not quite as strong as other men. And I know it sounds bad but I’m sure you’ve already felt yourself be emasculated. That’s not going to stop.” Falco informed Armin, who nodded in agreement. He had felt the emasculation from Gabi, and as much as it bothered him, something about it seemed normal, as if other’s, maybe from his childhood, emasculated him a lot too.

“I guess I don’t mind it sometimes. From what I can remember, I was always emasculated by the women around me. Maybe it’s something in the water?” Armin suggested, which had Falco laughing again, and he even clasped his hand on Armin’s shoulder. Armin smiled a little. It had been a long time since he was able to converse with another young man.

“Must be. I haven’t met many docile women. Why, even Reiner’s mom is loud, and mouthy. You should hear her speak sometime. You’ll want to cover your balls from those rants—Gabi’s not as bad as her.” Falco told Armin, who  tensed a bit at the mention of ‘Reiner.’

There was something dark about that name that made Armin uncomfortable. Scared, even. He shifted nervously a bit, and with his free hand, he wrapped it around his body, withdrawing as the feeling of betrayal fluttered through his heart and suddenly he knew that this was exactly why he didn’t trust Gabi. Someone named ‘Reiner’ had betrayed him on a deep, and personal level.

“What’s wrong?” Falco asked, noticing the shift in Armin’s demeanor.

“I had a bad experience with someone named Reiner before.” Armin admitted softly, feeling awful that he was ruining the friendly atmosphere. He just couldn’t help it. That name unsettled him.

“Ah. I know the feeling. But trust me, you’d like Reiner. He’s a hero to us all, like Helos.” Falco assured Armin, and pat his back. “And who knows, maybe Gabi will burn both of us.” Armin’s blue eyes bulged open at the implication of Falco’s words, and snapped his head to refocus on him.

“It’s—it’s not like that!” Armin stammered as his face flushed pink, not wanting to come between Falco and Gabi. They were childhood friends, and that seemed like a charming story to retell to potential children. Falco laughed, and smiled.

“I knew it. Well, I can’t say I’m not jealous.” Falco said as he set his hand on his cheek. “All you do is lay around and somehow you have her interest. It must be a women thing. They are fond of sick, injured lives, even if they do have too much testosterone.” Falco sighed, putting his arms behind his head. He had a rivalry with Gabi that was special, yet, she never showed as much interest in him as she did Armin.

“That could be true. She does have a kind heart underneath all of the thorns.” Armin agreed, though he felt a bit uneasy that Falco was jealous of him. Would that make Falco an enemy? Armin hoped not.

“And that’s why I won’t fault you if she chooses you. You’re a project. Girls like that. Even Gabi.” Falco stated, figuring there was no point in being jealous of Armin when the choice was ultimately up to Gabi. He had been jealous awhile ago, and maybe he had disliked Armin a lot, but Falco came to terms with the jealousy, and quashed it out. Especially since Gabi was tormenting Armin too. They could definitely bond over that.

“If that’s true, she’ll lose interest in me when I am healthy again, and then you can pursue her.” Armin reminded him, and rested his hand on the ground.

“You’re a good man. Let’s shake on it.” Falco offered, extending his hand to Armin. “To her choice.” Armin looked at the hand, then he tentatively shook it.

“To her choice.” Armin agreed.

That was the beginning of their friendship. Gabi seemed happy to have her two guy friends become friends too, which meant they were doing something right. Armin definitely wasn’t as dependent on Gabi anymore either, because he liked the times that Falco came around. They could talk about Gabi, and how she really didn’t understand how offensive she could act towards them. Falco tried bringing it up one day, that, she shouldn’t be so callous. That hadn’t ended well. Gabi became indignant and exploded on him. Armin knew better than to anger her. Falco didn’t. He loved her, but he didn’t take her shit like Armin did.

In that way, Armin admired Falco. Falco would yell at Gabi right back. The two definitely were heated and hostile with each other at times. Armin stayed out of their fights as much as he could. It wasn’t his business. Their fights did bring a certain amount of life to the insufferable hospital building. Armin was feeling better, because he almost felt as if he had his friends back. He definitely had a trio before. A boy, and a girl, and they were both head-strong and argued often, just like Gabi and Falco. Armin was pretty sure the girl he used to know was domineering as well, which might have been partially why he was drawn to Gabi. She reminded him her.

As comforting as the new trio was, Armin still felt incomplete and out of place. He yearned to get out of the building and explore the world around him. It seemed like his chest would never heal. Gabi’s enthusiasm over the weeks went a long way to keep Armin from being too impatient about healing. Then everything changed.

On December first, Gabi and Falco strutted into the makeshift hospital, both were grinning from ear to ear. Armin knew something was up. He pushed himself up, and looked at them with curiosity. Armin didn’t have to wait long, because before Gabi was even halfway across the room, she was declaring the reason for her visit.

“Adventure Day is nigh!” Gabi exclaimed excitedly, practically skipping in her approach towards Armin.

“That’s right. We’re taking you with us.” Falco proclaimed, and stretched his hand out to Armin. Armin smiled a little, and grabbed Falco’s hand. Gabi extended her hand to Armin as well, and he took her hand. Together, Falco and Gabi helped Armin up. He leaned against his new friends, letting them help keep him up.

Weeks of laying around and doing nothing left Armin weak-kneed. It was necessity that Armin let himself be helped. Lately, he hadn’t hurt much, and was sure that his body had healed, which was a relief. Now, he just had to regain his strength.

“Is it cold outside?” Armin asked, noticing the snow falling from the window.

“Oh no! I  forgot the jacket!” Gabi exclaimed, flushing with embarrassment. She had been in charge of bringing a jacket for Armin to wear, but she had been so excited to bring him outside that she forgot.

“No big deal.” Falco decided as he shrugged off his jacket, and offered it to Armin. Armin blinked, and shook his head.

“That’s okay…I don’t want to take your jacket.” Armin declined, not wanting to take a jacket from a friend who would then be cold.

“Take it. We’re going straight to Gabi’s house. It’s not too far from here.” Falco insisted, offering the jacket to Armin again. Armin still hesitated.

“Just take it already and let’s go!” Gabi snapped impatiently, wanting to show her beloved home town of Liberio to Armin in the hopes he might remember something of his past. Maybe he would remember where he lived? Armin instinctively flinched a bit at Gabi’s sharp tongue.

“Okay, okay.” Armin relented, and let Falco help him into the jacket. Once the jacket was on, the trio exited the makeshift hospital building. Gabi stopped them just outside the doors. She reached into a surprisingly feminine purse and pulled out a small, almost rectangular shaped object that Armin had never seen before. He squinted at it.

“Is that a camera!?” Falco exclaimed with surprise, gaping at the object Gabi held in her hand.

“What does it do?” Armin questioned, figuring it had a use of some sort.

“What’s it do!?” Gabi repeated, shocked Armin didn’t know about the camera. She knew most Eldian’s couldn’t afford a camera, but everyone knew what a camera was! And coveted it like candy. “I’ll just show you what it does! Now, we’re going to press our faces against each other, and smile real big!” Gabi told Armin, speaking passionately again, and then she pressed her cheek against Armin’s cheek. Armin didn’t have time to be startled by the close contact because with her other arm, Gabi had snaked it around Falco’s waist and had brought him closer, to where he involuntarily was pressed against Armin’s other face.

Snap!

There was a bright light. Armin blinked rapidly, startled by it. When he could see again, a small paper was protruding from the object. Gabi plucked the paper free and for the first time in months, Armin saw his reflection staring back at him.

“Ugh, is that really forever? I’m not even smiling.” Falco griped, peering around Armin to see the paper. Since Gabi had pressed their faces together, Falco and Armin dawned surprised faces. Only Gabi was grinning widely, and toothily in the photo.

“Is…this a…mirror?” Armin asked inquisitively, tilting his head to the side. He lightly touched the paper.

“It’s called a photograph. The camera produces it because of light, and time, or something…” Gabi explained, as she happily shoved the picture into the bag. “Let’s take another!” Gabi insisted, and both boys found themselves pressed together again. “Smile!” Gabi practically sang, and held the camera up again. Armin tried to smile when prompted, but he was nervous of the bright light that he figured would come. He was temporarily blinded again when the photo took. Armin rubbed at his eyes, and damn it, Gabi took another photo.

“How many do we have to take? I’m cold.” Falco muttered, already done with the camera that had been intriguing at first.

“Look at you guys. You both totally fail at taking pictures.” Gabi complained, frowning at the two new photo’s that really weren’t better than the first. They each were bad in their own ways.

“I’ve never seen such a thing before. It captures moments in time and freezes it?” Armin wondered, more intrigued with the camera than his own self in pictures. Gabi was right. The second photo, he tried to smile, but his eyes were closed, which made him just look pained. The one after that, Armin was rubbing at his eyes. Falco’s pictures weren’t much different.

“Something like that.” Gabi concurred as she shoved the camera back into her purse. “Anyways, Reiner received it as a gift for being a hero to all. He didn’t want it, so he gave it to me because I’m his favorite cousin!” Gabi gloated, and urged Armin and Falco to follow. Both boys didn’t hesitate to follow the vibrant girl. Armin grimaced at the mention of Reiner but kept his thoughts to himself.

“Is he visiting today?” Falco asked, but Gabi shook her head.

“No. I don’t want to shock Armin with the extent of my awesome family. He’s just meeting my parents today.” Gabi responded, as they walked alongside each other. The snow crunched under their shoes. Armin did hear their conversation, but he was busy looking around at the foreign buildings, and streets, mentally mapping them out. It must have been a soldier’s habit, because he doubted normal people made mental maps of a new area.

“Good. Reiner might be too intimidating for him, or your affection for him might be.” Falco teased. Gabi puffed her cheeks out and stuck her tongue out at him. Falco smiled, then looked at Armin. “You seem pretty quiet for someone who got a get-out-of-jail-free card.” Armin turned his attention to Falco.

“I’ve been trying to spot something familiar, but I don’t recognize anything.” Armin responded, bothered by how nothing seemed familiar. The housing styles in his head didn’t match the ones here at all. This was information he didn’t share with his newfound friends.

“You did hit your head really hard. Remember the gash?” Gabi reminded Armin, and pulled him along with her. Armin nodded. He remembered how his head throbbed for days, and there had been no pain medication. “I’ll show you around when you feel better.” Gabi offered then, as an after thought.

As nice as that sounded, Armin was distracted by guards who were stationed in varying strategic locations around the town. The guards stared at all who passed by. Armin was uncomfortable with their presence, and turned his gaze to the snow. All he knew was that he did not want to draw their attention his way.

“Who are they?” Armin asked in a soft, concerned whisper. Gabi blinked, seeming lost as to what or who Armin was referencing. Falco understood immediately.

“PSA. Public Service Authority. They make sure we Eldian’s stay out of trouble, and if we act out, they put us in our place.” Falco answered in a hushed voice, because while the PSA weren’t outwardly violent, they could, and would be violent if they felt the need to be mean.

“I was afraid of that.” Armin muttered grimly, and made a mental note to stay clear of those PSA guards. He got a bad feeling from them, and what their presence here implicated. The other concern Armin had was that the houses all looked the same. There was something eerie about that that he couldn’t shake off.

“You’re looking at the houses, huh?” Falco observed, noticing the apprehension growing in Armin’s eyes. “We all have the same house, it’s true. We’re all fed, and we have free education. Some parts of the world are not like that.” Falco explained, informing Armin a bit about how they lived in the interment camp.

“It’s really cool. They take care of us, and allow us to be soldiers.” Gabi piped in, expressing her undying gratitude towards Marley. “We’re always on the front lines, and I hear that a lot of us even get to become titans—not one of the nine. That’s reserved for me!” Gabi boasted, jerking her thumb to herself proudly. Falco chuckled.

“Of course, I intend to take her place as one of the nine.” Falco told Armin, who was really listening to them now.

“One of the nine?” Armin repeated, and recalled some of his dreams where two powerful, frightening titans occupied his nightmares. Were they part of the nine? And if so, how would he know about them?

“Yes. There’s a legend that this Ymir Fritz devil stole the founding titan from Marley. When the she-devil died, her soul split, thus creating the 9 titans.” Gabi retold the story, the way she knew it. Armin simply nodded with acknowledgement and stored the information away to sort out later.

As they headed towards Gabi’s house, Gabi and Falco pointed out places they knew to Armin. Armin didn’t say much. He stowed away the information, and kept it in his ‘knowledge’ box. There wasn’t all that much to see though since the trek to the house didn’t take long.

“That’s my house!” Gabi exclaimed suddenly and pointed to a house that looked no different than any other house. Armin blinked at it, and was instead drawn to a tall, dark green tree sporting gorgeous red berries that shown in the morning light. Snow covered some of the trees branches and leaves, and even some of the berries which made the tree stand out. Armin stopped, and stared at it. It was breathtaking.

“Holly. It’s a holly tree.” Falco stated, noticing Armin look at the tree with awe. Even he could admit the tree was beautiful, especially during winter. There was no prettier sight.

“Ooh. If you like it that much, let’s get some pictures!” Gabi suggested, pulling her guy friends to the tree. Armin gasped a bit with alarm, but let himself be pulled by her. Gabi pressed them all together and took more pictures. She even pushed the camera into Falco’s hands, and had him take a few pictures of her, and Armin together in front of the tree. Armin knew he was supposed to smile, but it was a bit uncomfortable for him.

“Can I try it?” Armin questioned finally, wanting to understand how the camera worked. Gabi tilted her head with thought.

“If you think you can stand, go for it.” Gabi relented, and showed a button to Armin. “Press that.” Gabi instructed. Armin nodded with acknowledgement and stood back some ways, to take a picture or two of Gabi and Falco. Falco had an easier time smiling, and was a bit more comfortable with Gabi then Armin was. Their pictures definitely turned out better. The camera was fascinating to Armin, and he wondered vaguely if there was other new technology to be found.

“Come on. Let’s go inside. You’re shaking.” Gabi suggested, and pulled Armin to the house. Armin refrained from telling her that part of the reason that he was shaking was because he was fatigued, cold, and nervous. Falco hurried after them, wanting to warm up. Gabi swung the door open and nudged Armin inside. “Moooom, I’m home!” Gabi called into the house, as she shut the door behind them and shook some of the snow off.

The first thing Armin noticed was that the house was warm, and that while there was wood based furniture, everything that could be white, was white. Armin didn’t like it, but he refrained from commenting about it because he had a feeling that all of the houses were white too. There was no color and that…well, that bothered Armin.

“You okay?” Gabi questioned, noticing how uncomfortable Armin was.

“He’s definitely a soldier.” Falco answered, in Armin’s stead, having noticed how Armin was looking around the room and was looking for all possible exits.

“I’m just nervous.” Was all Armin admitted to, as he kept his arms to himself. There was nothing warm, nor friendly about this house. Even here, Gabi was the brightest, warmest person in the room. He looked over as two people exited a kitchen. Armin assumed them to be Gabi’s parents.

They were middle-aged, and were soft around their waist. Neither of them were starving. There was plenty of food around, Armin assumed, and had the troubling thought that as long as a village was well fed, they would not riot, even when PSA’s were stationed around the town like watch dogs.

“Is this him, Gabi?” Asked Mrs. Braun, looking Armin over. Armin recoiled a bit, not used to being looked over. “My, he’s a charmer.” Mrs. Braun stated as she approached the trio, and placed her hands on Armin’s cheeks before he could step away. “You’re a strapping young fellow, aren’t you? I bet you’re rather popular with the ladies.” Armin flushed red and shook his head back and forth quickly.

“Mom!” Gabi complained, while Falco laughed, and didn’t move to help Armin.

“N-not really…” Armin denied self-consciously, recalling how he never had a girlfriend before. The girls in the military had thought that he was too weak to be a good potential mate. The only one who had ever expressed interest in him was a creepy old man. That kinda destroyed what little confidence Armin had in himself. Girls didn’t want him. But some old male fuck did? What the fuck had he even intended to do to Armin? Armin struggled not to be sick with the possibilities.   

“A modest man.” Mr. Braun observed, impressed with Armin’s humble nature that was actually brought about by a low self-esteem.

“Well, color me impressed, Gabi. You’re friend is definitely welcome here.” Mrs. Braun said, as she finally let Armin go. Armin immediately took a cautious step back and stayed just out of reach of getting grabbed at again.

“Wait. You want me to live here?” Armin questioned, having been under the impression that he was going to go back to the makeshift hospital. Gabi nodded.

“Just until the PSA’s figure out where to place you.” Mr. Braun responded, in no uncertain terms that the invitation wasn’t a forever one. “There’s a spare bedroom you can use.”

_A bedroom_.  Armin repeated in his head, and felt a bit numb. He couldn’t remember the last time he had a bedroom all to himself. There were dark days of being homeless when he was young, and then there was the military, where he always shared a room with numerous other boys. There was no privacy. Ever.

“Aw. The poor dear is shaking. Come here.” Mrs. Braun commented, and tried to grab Armin again to guide him to the warmth. Armin saw her coming and side stepped behind Falco.

“I’m kind of shaking more than he is.” Falco pointed out, with his arms wrapped around himself. He had given Armin his jacket. He didn’t have warmth. Armin did.

“Well you know where the fire is.” Mrs. Braun told Falco, and managed to corner Armin long enough that she got an arm curled around him. Armin let out a small noise of protest.

“Dear, I don’t think he’s comfortable with being grabbed at so familiarly.” Mr. Braun mentioned, but the wife waved her hand dismissively at him.

“Nonsense. He’s just scared, and cold, being somewhere new. And, I bet you’re hungry.” Mrs. Braun commented, as she guided Armin into the living room where there was a roaring fire. Falco and Gabi followed them. Falco sat down in front of the fire to warm himself up.

“Please let me go.” Armin murmured quietly, wanting to be able to be awkward and out of place by himself. He didn’t want the type of overbearing, motherly love Mrs. Braun was forcing on him.

“Right, right. The fire is there. I’ll get you a snack.” Mrs. Braun decided as she let him go, and headed into the kitchen. Gabi grabbed Armin’s hand and pulled him to sit down with her and Falco in front of the fire.

“See where she gets it from?” Falco teased, with an amused smile. Gabi puffed her cheeks out at him. Armin nodded ever so slightly.

“And what’s that supposed to mean?” Gabi demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. Falco just shrugged so Gabi rounded on Armin. “And what do you have to say?”

“She uh, seems nice…” Armin answered, scratching at his cheek nervously. Gabi let out an irritated noise, and flicked some of the snow off of her jacket and on to them. Armin flinched a bit and rubbed the snow off of his face, while Falco and Gabi engaged in a scooping what little snow was on their clothes off, and tossing it at each other. They were competitive like that.

As the two argued, Armin pulled his legs against his chest and wrapped his arms around them. He felt a lot better, and some of his concerns were put to rest. Gabi’s parents were kind enough to let him stay here. Before, Armin had had no idea where he would live and that had stressed him out a lot—but he hadn’t mentioned that to Gabi.

At least for now, Armin had a home.


	4. The End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Armin and Gabi become close.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Initially I wanted this story to be creative, original, and emotional. However, I just want to be done with fanfics again so I'm wrapping this fanfic up too. If anyone was reading and following this story, I apologize.

Lost

Chapter 4: The End

The room was simple, and bland, yet Armin was thrilled to plop himself down on to the bed. The mattress was _almost_ soft. _I will be comfortable here_. Armin told himself, as he snuggled against the bed. He had done too much laying around, but all he wanted to do now was sleep on a real bed. This was a real bed as far as he was concerned, and he took full advantage of the newfound privacy the room offered him. Armin slid his hand under the blanket, and tucked it under the waistband of his pants.

These quiet moments where he was legitimately alone were few, and far between. There were times that even Armin forgot that he was a teenage boy, but this was not one of those nights. For precautionary measures, Armin clapped his other hand over his mouth to muffle any noise that he might make. Little pleasures and freedom like this was still foreign to him, so he couldn’t help but to feel a bit giddy as he played with himself, even through the shame that colored his cheeks red.

If Armin had had his way, he would have been alone in a house that belonged to him, but that was a luxury he did not think was available to him. This room would have to do, even though he did feel a bit awkward because this wasn’t his home, and he knew that if he got caught, he’d probably be thrown out into the snow for behaving like a ‘pervert.’ And as perverted as this might be, Armin tried not to feel too bad about it because it wasn’t like he was one of the shameless boys back in the barracks who didn’t even cover their mouth as they beat their junk shamelessly. Armin had shame.

A lot of shame.

Not enough to stop Armin from seeking pleasure. This was his chance—an opportunity of a lifetime, as far as he was concerned, and was not about to squander it because of some reservations he had. Armin stroked himself slowly at first, and experimented a little to remember what he liked. He shut his eyes as he felt the first sparks of pleasure, and quickened his stroking pace to heighten the pleasure. As he frigged himself, his thoughts wandered towards Gabi’s pretty smile, and despite how Armin tried not to let his thoughts become perverse, he began to envision the way Gabi’s breasts were accentuated in that tattered white dress she liked to wear.

_She has slender legs_. Armin thought, recalling the day that Gabi wore shorts that had exposed a good portion of her smooth legs. He briefly toyed with the idea that Gabi had meant to touch him sexually—she hadn’t and he knew that, but now that he thought back on it, her hand had been soft, and warm. Armin knew he wasn’t supposed to think about her like this. It was wrong. She had been nice to him. Kind of. Sort of. Sometimes. He pushed the bad days, and moments out of his mind and focused on the good ones where she made him laugh, and gave him fruit.

Each thought was of Gabi, and within minutes, Armin felt the tight pressure at the tip of his cock spasm, and release. Armin moaned into his hand, and caught what he could on to his other hand, because he did not want his mess to dirty the bed. For a moment, Armin panted, and reveled in the high of the orgasm. When the high was over, Armin carefully climbed out of bed and snuck into the bathroom to clean himself up properly. The running water, and plumbing was still a new concept to him, because as far as he could remember, he had never seen such a wonderous invention before. If he had known it was possible to have indoor plumbing, he was sure he never got to experience the luxuries of it before.

When he was finished, Armin stepped back into the short hallway and shut the door behind him. A hand clasped on his shoulder. Startled, Armin looked up, half expecting to see Mrs. Braun. He was more surprised to see Mr. Braun, and simpered as he tried to step out of the way of the bathroom, figuring the man wanted the bathroom. The man’s hand tightened on his shoulder, and then Mr. Braun leaned forwards to whisper in Armin’s ear.

“Next time, put it in Gabi.” Mr. Braun whispered, keeping a firm hand on Armin’s shoulder. Armin’s blue eyes widened and with sheer astonishment, he stared at the man. Mr. Braun laughed heartily and pat Armin’s back. “Don’t look so scared, boy. You know us Eldian’s are encouraged to have children, and while I would prefer Falco to become my son in law, he doesn’t seem to be taking the initiative required to impregnate her.” Mr. Braun explained, having hope yet that his girl would become a more proper citizen.

The military feats that she was accomplishing was wonderful, but Mr. Braun preferred her to not be in such dangerous situations, and would rather her follow the path her mother took—the family path.

“Mrs. Braun and I have been unable to conceive more children, though we’ve tried. You look like a spry young man, and you’re welcome to try if you can keep her off the battlefield like you have been doing.” Mr. Braun stated, and ruffled Armin’s hair. Armin stood tense, shocked, and uncomfortable.

How the hell was he supposed to respond to any of this?

“Go on. Rest up, and we’ll feed you a hearty meal in the morning to get your strength up for procreation.” Mr. Braun informed Armin, and then headed into the bathroom. Armin stiffly fled into the bedroom, and shut the door behind him. His mind was reeling from the inappropriate talking-to he got.

Sure, Gabi was cute, and maybe Armin did want her to touch him a little, but he hadn’t thought about engaging in sex, let alone procreation. He was a bit alarmed at the idea. Kids was definitely not the goal Armin was aspiring to. He wasn’t even sure if he liked Gabi all that much. As things were, Armin was happy with their friendship. A few brief sexual thoughts did not mean he wanted something more.

If anything, Mr. Braun just effectively turned Armin off to the idea of asking Gabi to be with him. Armin laid down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, replaying the uncomfortable situation out in his head. He tried to think about it rationally.

From what little Armin understood about the Liberio interment camps was that Eldian’s were regarded as something less than human. When Marley had been attacked, and hundreds of people had been wounded, Marleyians had preferential treatment over Eldian’s. Since there was a disregard for an Eldian’s life, why would they be encouraged to breed when they weren’t wanted? Armin thought to how Gabi was a soldier—he was a soldier too, and they were both young, which wasn’t odd if Marley was trying to dispose of Eldian’s. It would only make sense for Marley to encourage the Eldian’s to fight their wars, so their people wouldn’t die…

So then was that their reason for encouraging the Eldians to breed? _Eldians must be expendable for war_. Armin figured, thinking that the Eldian’s were encouraged to breed to then be used as war fodder. That had to be the reason, since Marley obviously didn’t actually care about Eldian’s. And from what Gabi said, Marley was merciful to Eldians…but was that true? Armin highly doubted it, as he realized they might be caged animals.

. . .

Last night had been awkward, and thought provoking. Armin was still thinking about Mr. Braun’s suggestion, and what the implications of that meant for the entire town as he ate a warm porridge, with honey mixed in. Gabi was sitting next to him, and was chatting about her night. Mrs. Braun was listening to her, and was eating her own bowl of porridge while Mr. Braun was reading a newspaper. Armin glanced at the newspaper a few times with interest. He wanted to know what it said.

Newspapers were sources of information, though Armin held a healthy skepticism towards them. He didn’t quite remember where the doubt came from, nor how it was created, but he understood the concept that if one did not read the newspaper, they were uninformed, while those who did read the newspaper were misinformed.

“May I read that?” Armin asked, expressing interest in the newspaper.

“Mmm, a man who reads. You hear that, Gabi?” Mr. Braun called to her, as he held the newspaper out to Armin who froze up a bit, recalling the talk the man had with him last night. Armin suddenly regretted asking for the newspaper, but with Gabi and Mrs. Braun looking at him, he opted for the newspaper to hide his face in.

“So?” Gabi asked, not understanding the point her father was trying to make. There were times she could be obtuse, and this was one of them. Her Dad seemed to understand that too, which made him grit his teeth and drop the subject for now. Armin was grateful for that because he didn’t want to be pushed into something when he barely had a place to live. He wanted to understand the world around him, and what his role was meant to be before he got carried away with girls.

The newspaper offered Armin little comfort. As he scanned the pages, for names of journalists, and committed them to memory, he noticed how any time an Eldian was mentioned, it was because the Eldian was behaving criminally, and was either imprisoned in ‘The Dungeon’ or was sent to a reform camp. A chill spread down Armin’s spine at the thought of a reform camp. He had never heard about a reform camp that was anything but a form of torture, be it physical or psychological.

“If we act out, we’re sent to a rehabilitation camp?” Armin inquired, in an attempt to gain more information from them.

“We’ve never been to one. I hear they are nice facilities.” Mr. Braun answered, but something about his tone sounded rehearsed. Armin set the paper down and looked to Mrs. Braun and Gabi, to see if they had anything else to offer towards the question. By the way Gabi was shifting in her seat, Armin figured she could elaborate.

“Reiner went to one.” Gabi blurted, despite knowing she shouldn’t. Mrs. Braun and Mr. Braun looked horrified for a moment.

“Gabi!” They scolded in unison.

“It’s true!” Gabi argued, headstrong as per usual. “And even I know he was a bit different afterwards.” Gabi asserted, defending her position. Armin looked back and forth between them as they bickered with each other.

“As he should have been!” Mrs. Braun insisted, believing in the reform programs. “He was too loud before. When he returned, he was a proper citizen, and became…” Mrs. Braun stopped, and glanced at Armin warily. She readjusted her words. “Reiner did his duty to this country.”

Reiner. The name sounded familiar.

. . .

It was not long before Armin met Reiner, who had thrown him against the wall and demanded to know what he was doing here. Armin had no memory of Reiner, but he was smart enough to be scared of Reiner. Reiner realized Armin really had forgotten who he was, and relented to let Armin live, but would keep an eye on Armin. Gabi noticed their tense relationship, but didn’t question it too much.

During Armin’s stay in Marley, he became close with Gabi and Falco. A part of him almost felt complete, that he had a male best friend and a girl who was a friend that he just so happened to be crushing on at the same time. Gabi was rather oblivious, and Armin didn’t push her on the matter. He didn’t want to ruin their friendship just because he thought she was cute.

Although, there were times that Gabi was abrasive and domineering. Armin hated that. That was why, when Gabi asked him out one day, Armin politely refused. He didn’t want to marry a girl who would walk all over him. Gabi was mad, boy, was she mad…but Armin wasn’t going to change his answer. If Gabi wanted to be with Armin, the condition was that she needed to be nice to him. He didn’t mind that she was abrasive with other people. That was fine. But with him, he wanted her to, well, not be a domineering bitch.

It was a source of stress for both of them. Falco eventually got through to Gabi that although Armin was sensitive, he was still a man, and he wanted to be treated with respect. When Gabi understood this, she forced herself to be less abrasive towards Armin because she did want to be with him. Armin relented when he saw she changed for the better, and they began a tentative relationship, with quick, experimental kisses. Their relationship became solid when they gave each other their virginity. Armin hadn’t minded that she was a bit of a leader during sex because he was shy and nervous.

Sometime after that, Armin joined the military and fought alongside Gabi. Armin became a strategist, having a natural knack for strategy. He was brilliant, and was able to replicate technology that was in his mind that he didn’t quite know where he learned it from. There were still times Armin wondered about his lost memory, but those memories faded fast as he involved himself in this world.

Then Paradis Island attacked Marley again. Armin encountered familiar faces, and when he did, his memory came flooding back to him. He got between the two armies, and advocated for peace, as he had once done before when the military wanted to kill Eren. A shot came from the left. Gabi took the hit for Armin. Armin held her in his arms as she died for the cause he believed in—peace between both sides. All he could do was cry. The Romeo and Juliet theme inspired his real friends to come to his aid, and they insisted on peace between the two countries.

A pact of peace was made between the countries.  


End file.
